Home to nationally renowned schools like Columbia and NYU, New York City is a destination for those seeking a high-quality education. So it should come as no surprise that the city stands out in educational technology as well. As the city continues to grow as an edtech hub, these are the companies leading the way.
Top NYC Edtech Companies to Know
- Atomic
- Teachable
- Teachers Pay Teachers
- Skillshare
- Newsela
- Neverware
- Noodle
- Codecademy
- Knewton
- Pursuit
- Duolingo
What they do: With the goal of spreading technical expertise to those who need it most, Pursuit has crafted a thorough four-year program for adults. Professionals can learn to code and gain other tech skills to propel their careers to new heights. Along the way, they’ll receive a community of like-minded individuals who can provide support.
How it’s changing education: The introduction of technology to many fields has left untrained workers behind, but Pursuit is giving laborers access to much-needed skills. As a result, the company is giving lower-income communities more mobility by bringing advanced software training to their members.
Founded: 2011
What they do: Duolingo’s language-learning app is used by everyday people and students alike to quickly get the hang of another language via bite-sized lessons.
How it’s changing education: Duolingo’s success has shown that gamification principles and AI-powered personalized lessons are effective ways to keep students engaged in learning a new language.
Founded: 2011
What they do: Teachable is a learning destination where instructors can craft their own courses to share their knowledge and skills.
How it's changing education: More than 100,000 creators use Teachable’s no-code platform to help other people learn.
Founded: 2014
What they do: Teachers Pay Teachers is the world’s largest online marketplace for original educational content, as well as an online resource for teachers seeking information or educational strategies.
How it's changing education: Teachers Pay Teachers offers teaching resources on almost every subject imaginable, and also includes a large community of educators offering advice and strategies. Educators can easily search for different activities, like games or printable worksheets, for a wide range of subjects.
Founded: 2006
What they do: Skillshare is an online learning community for creators that makes it easier to take or teach a class, as well as connect with others.
How it's changing education: Users get unlimited access to over 150,000 classes which run the gamut from ink drawing techniques to street photography to HTML tutorials. To date, the company has garnered over two million students and aims to help close the professional skills gap by providing universal access to high-quality learning.
Founded: 2010
What they do: Newsela helps students build their reading comprehension skills by publishing daily news articles from such sources as the Washington Post and Associated Press across five different reading levels for grades 2-12.
How it's changing education: The edtech startup's new app lets users set their reading level and then browse Newsela's library of articles. Students can join a teacher's classroom, read assigned articles and take quizzes to test comprehension.
Founded: 2012
What they do: Atomic is a team of technologists, designers and content managers who work with publishers and edtech companies to create digital products that help people learn and improve their reading.
How it’s changing education: The team of engineers at Atomic are focused on its mission to support teachers with effective classroom tools and works with clients to build apps that help people discover books and begin reading them at an effective pace, with tools to track and asses reading progress included to facilitate results.
Founded: 1999
What they do: Noodle helps parents and students find schools, educational resources and tutors based on interests, strengths and needs. A community of experts are also on hand to answer questions.
How it's changing education: Education World described Noodle's preschool database, which allows parents to personalize their search based on a number of criteria, as "Yelp for preschools."
Founded: 2010
What they do: Codecademy is a free platform that can help you learn to code different programming languages through easy, hands-on lessons.
How it's changing education: The platform uses a network approach, allowing students to interact while they learn new skills and build incredible projects. The simple, laid-out courses have enabled millions of people to learn to code, interactively, worldwide.
Founded: 2011
What they do: Aimed at educational institutions but available for use at home or work, Neverware enables users to experience the power and speed of a new computer without discarding their old hardware. The company’s software converts an old Mac or PC to a Google Chromium-like OS while using cloud technology to run a slow computer quickly and efficiently.
How it’s changing education: Neverware offers flexible pricing for schools, including an annual option of $1 per student, allowing institutions to forgo the expensive headache of upgrading.
Founded: 2011
What they do: Girls Who Code is a non-profit organization that introduces high school girls to computer science through instruction in coding fundamentals, web development and design. The group offers summer immersion programs, scholarships and after-school clubs.
How it's changing education: The number of women who graduate with degrees in computer science is a mere 18 percent, while only 0.4 percent of high school girls express interest in majoring in the field, according to the group's website. Girls Who Code works to close the gender gap through teaching, mentoring and engagement.
Founded: 2011
What they do: 2U is a SaaS company dedicated to helping educational institutions personalize and scale online learning.
How it's changing education: The 2U edtech platform is helping universities reach a wider base of students. The company has partnered with top universities like Harvard, University of North Carolina and Northwestern to create tailored, virtual educational experiences.
Founded: 2008
What they do: Using an adaptive learning platform that can tailor lessons to a student's strengths and weaknesses, Knewton is like having a highly sophisticated personal tutor with 24-7 availability. The technology uses data to learn things about the student, such as how long they stay focused on a history lesson, or whether video is more effective than text when learning science. Knewton then uses these data points to create more effective lessons.
How it's changing education: After introducing the technology in classrooms at a high-poverty public school in Baltimore, students saw a 25 percent increase in reading scores over the previous year.
Founded: 2008
What they do: Supported by a team of scientists, developers, linguists, teachers and communication specialists, Voxy is an English language learning platform for individuals, educational institutions and corporations.
How it’s changing education: Voxy offers more than 26,000 English lessons and 80 courses on technical and soft skills.
Founded: 2010
What they do: The Brainscape app uses adaptive flashcard algorithms to make studying more fun and effective by repeating concepts in patterns optimized to the student's learning pace. Teachers can use the software to set up classroom pages, create decks and track learning progress. Brainscape's database includes flashcards on everything from Shakespeare to gynecology.
How it's changing education: A Columbia University study cited on the company's website found students who study for 30 minutes using the Brainscape method see a two-fold increase in their retention abilities.
Founded: 2011
What they do: With offerings like Historia, which teaches kids world history by letting them follow a civilization through time, E-Line Media has brought game-based-learning to hundreds of thousands of students in more than 10,000 classrooms and after-school programs. Games are designed around major core subjects such as history, language arts, science and math.
How it's changing education: The edtech startup partnered with the ASU Center for Games and Impact to develop a middle-school learning platform called Thrive, which focuses on teaching history, language arts, math, science and new literacies. Its Gamestar Mechanic platform also teaches youths how to create and design their own games.
Founded: 2007
What they do: KnowRe, founded in Korea but headquartered in New York, uses adaptive learning technology to help students learn math. The software breaks down a math question into its essential components and assesses which steps in the process the student got wrong, helping teachers identify gaps in learning and develop individualized curriculum.
How it's changing education: Math teachers are using the company's educational software to scale personalized learning and improve math skills.
Founded: 2012
